Jen White moves from producer to host of The St. John's Morning Show

The CBC's Jen White has worked on a lot of stories over her 12-year career at CBC Newfoundland and Labrador and is about to take onmore as she steps into her new role as host ofThe St. John's Morning Show.

She's been a reporter, TV host, investigative journalist and most recently served as producer of the morning show, but is now taking the reins on air to help people across eastern Newfoundland start their days right.

You can hearThe St. John's Morning Show from 6-9 a.m. NT in the Avalon region on 640 AM or 88.5 FM, oron the CBC Listen app.

Before her first show, White spoke with the CBC's Alex Kennedy about her career and what she's most looking forward to.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Jen, first of all, how does it feel to introduce yourself as the new host of The St. John's Morning Show?

A: It's incredibly surreal. It's a job I've wanted for a long time, and then the stars kind of aligned. My kids are pretty young now, so it kind of makes sense for me to go to bed when they go to bed, and then I wake up earlier than they do these days. But they kind of prepared me for that, for those early mornings.

I'm beyond thrilled to be able to be the voice that people in St. John's and the Avalon hear when they wake up in the morning. I'm very, very humbled and honoured tohave the role, and it's going to be a lot of fun.

I was going to ask you about that. How good are you at waking up early?

I've gotten better. The worst-kept secret, I guess, is that I wasn't a morning person before now. My mom likes to sleep in, I used to love to sleep in. But since having kids, since I had [my daughter] Winnie three years ago, sleep has been a bit sparse anyway. So I've gotten used to surviving on not very much.

[My husband], he's going to be watching the kids in the morning while I'm at work, so he's going to be wrangling the three-year-old and the one-year-old. So it's all happening because of him.

Jen, for those who might not know who you are, tell me a bit about yourself and your background in journalism.

Well, I'm a townie. Born and raised in St. John's the west end, to be specific still living in the west end. I got a degree at MUN before I went away to what is now Toronto Metropolitan University to do a postgraduate in broadcast journalism. And I worked up there for a few years.I did some fun stuff, like I was an intern with Daily Planet at the Discovery Channel, at CTV. I was also an intern at MTV Canada when that existed.

After living up in Toronto for four years, it was time to come home. Newfoundland has always been home, and it was really great to get to get back here and to get back to get into journalism, to really dig into my career. When I moved home I started work with VOCM as a radio newsreader there. And then I did a stint with Out of the Fog on Rogers Television as one of the on-air personalities there. And then eventually I found my way to CBC. That was back in 2012, so I've been here now much longer than it feels.

And you were obviously a big part of of CBC Investigates for a time as well.

Yes. When I started with CBC, I was primarily involved with CBC Investigates for a long time along with my colleague, producer Rob Antle, working ona lot of stories on fraud and fraudulent activity in the province.

I learned a lot. From there I learned how to do bigger platform projects, more multi-platform projects.

• This is My Story: Rising From the Flames

I worked on series like This is My Story, which ran for three seasons. Access Denied that was about people with disabilities and issues that they faced. So it was a very in-depth look at that, from things like how to get around the city and even the CBC building.

One of the other things that people might know you from more recently is One in Six, which was a really fascinating podcast about your fertility journey. Tell me why you wanted to share that and why it was so important to you.

At the time I was deep into my fertility journey. We were years trying to conceive and had reached a breaking point, I guess, of trying to keep it secret from everyone I knew, including people at work.

It was a very stressful time and there were a lot of doctors' appointments and things involved with that. And it just got to the point where I was emotionally and mentally drained and I needed to talk about it. And it wasn't until I started becoming OK with it and talking to other people that I realized just how prevalent it was. And that's that's how the name One in Six came to be, because that is the statistic of the people of reproductive age who are dealing with fertility issues.

• Hear One in Six, hosted by Jen White, wherever you get your podcasts

And once I started sharing that journey, it was incredible the amount of people who came forward and who actually listened to the podcast. And it wasn't just like, "Oh, good for you. Good job, good podcast, good listen."It was just so great to hear from so many people stories from not just Newfoundland, but from across Canada and even into the States and the U.K. about other people finding comfort in hearing our story. And, and it has meant a lot. It has meant a lot. I know it helped me. So it was even more rewarding to know that it helped other people.

You've been the producer of The St. John's Morning Show for some time. What's it like now to move from the producer chair to the host chair?

It's funny, because I know all the behind-the-scenes stuff. So I don't know if that's good or bad, but I think it gives me a better knowledge of how to tackle the show as a host.

I've been a producer for a long time, and while I enjoy it, my heart is really with performance. And so I'm really excited about not just sitting behind the scenes and lining stuff up, lining up interviews and things and working with the team, but working with the team in a different capacity so that I can really interact with the audience and hopefully bring more stories to life.

I can't wait to share stories with the audience on topics that matter to them. And I want to have some fun too. I know that the morning show is that place where you're getting your morning started. So I want to be able to serve you up the serious and the importance and the news bits of the day. But I also want to bring you some fun pieces too. So I'm looking forward to sharing that, and also some music. Our tech, Andrew, was really great at picking music. So I think it's going to be fun.

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